Rooms
by SapphireMind
Summary: Set just after Mickey joined them in School Reunion. A little study about sleeping arrangements.


Annoyed as she had been that Mickey was going to be joining her and the Doctor, Rose still willingly took Mickey around for his tour of the TARDIS.

"Wow, that swimming pool is fantastic," Mickey exclaimed, his eyes still boggled from all he had seen. "The waterfall really is a great touch."

Rose grinned. The waterfall had been her idea. "Yah, it's amazing. Once you've picked out your room and settled in a bit, we can go for a bit of a swim if you want." The tour was lightening her mood considerably. She could understand now why the Doctor always traveled with someone else. Things became _new_ again with new eyes.

"How do I do that? Where's yours? Does the Doctor even sleep?" Mickey looked around the hallway they were in. All sorts of different doors lined the hallway. Rose knew it didn't always look like this, but that the TARDIS was giving Mickey some choices on living spaces.

"Just start opening doors. If you like a room, keep it." A half-smile appeared on her face as she continued, "The Doctor doesn't have to really sleep much usually, unless he gets hurt or something. He can though, if he wants. Usually does these days, traveling with a human." The half-smile grew, remembering the conversation between her and the Doctor on the very same subject.

Mickey kept looking in all the doors, amazed by what the TARDIS was offering him. "Are you sure it's ok for me to take any of them?" He seemed to have found one he liked, but he had a hard time believing still that they were all there for him to choose from.

"Yep," Rose said, popping her 'P'. "Just remember what the door looks like. Rooms have a tendency to shift sometimes during travel." She giggled a little, feeling like a flight attendant giving a safety lecture about luggage.

Mickey shook his head in disbelief, knocking on the solid mahogany door of the room he chose. "Nothing too fancy, but nice and sturdy. A bit like me, I suppose." He stole a glance over to the blonde woman he still loved. She was gazing down the hall, eyes slightly unfocused, lost in a memory and not paying attention to him in the least. Mickey sighed; he had hoped maybe traveling with her would bring them back closer again, but he was having his doubts.

Rose remembered the day she picked out her room. She had merely taken the first that the TARDIS had offered; she didn't really care about it, she was going to see all of the universe and time. As they traveled, things shifted and across from her room was the Doctor's: a blue painted door that was faded and scuffed. She would pop in to pull him to the pool, or to have some tea. Almost never did she find him sleeping.

* * *

"Do you actually need sleep?" Rose asked with concern one night. She knew that he was an alien, but it was hard to figure out what was different.

The Ninth Doctor looked up at her in surprise. Few of his companions asked him about that. "I do, at some point. If I'm injured, I'll need it more. I don't need nearly as much as you humans though." He sniffed in superiority. Rose threw a pillow at his head, which he caught easily. "Usually it can be put off until it is convenient." The Doctor paused, looking back over to where Rose was perched on a chair as they talked. "I can sleep more if I want to. It can be nice, dreaming."

Rose mused thoughtfully to herself, "I wonder what a Time Lord's dreams look like, in comparison to a human's of course." So much of the Doctor's life seemed like a dream to her, she wasn't sure how it could be any more fantastic than his real life.

Of course the Doctor heard her quiet words, but elected to not address them. Dreams were something he was enjoying more and more lately.

* * *

"Rose!" Mickey called as he exited his room. He had trunks on and was ready to try out the pool. More than a little surprising to him, the crowded hallway of doors now only contained two – his and painted blue door that he supposed belonged to the Doctor. He peered around a corner to see if he could find Rose's door without getting lost.

"Right behind you," Rose had suddenly appeared in the hallway, grinning and wearing a robe over her bright pink bikini. "Ready for swimming?" Her smile faded quickly when she saw Mickey's face.

Mickey's face hardened immediately when he saw her: two doors in the hallway, three people living on the ship. "Where's your room, Rose?" His expression darkened further when the Tenth Doctor exited the blue door. "Where is the Doctor's room?"

"Mickey…" Rose said warningly, though there was a blush creeping up her neck.

"Right." Mickey ground his teeth together. "I don't even know why I bother." He turned on his heel and returned to his room, slamming the door.

The Doctor looked at Rose from the corner of his eyes, then over to Mickey's door, then back to Rose. "Well, that didn't go very well."

Rose rolled her eyes at the Doctor. "You think?" She sighed, "Well, I better go talk to him. Otherwise it will be beastly until we get it settled." The Doctor nodded, his eyes slightly concerned. He hadn't anticipating ending up here when Rose first joined him.

* * *

"Blast it, Rose!" The ninth Doctor yelled in frustration, noting that the yellow-haired girl he had started growing very fond of had wandered off again. He caught a glimpse of pink and hurried toward it.

Rose was wandering through the marketplace, wherever and whenever they were. She was hoping to get a scarf for her mother before their next return to her time. She heard the start of an argument to her right; a thief being caught red-handed. She turned to step away from the fracas when her eyes widened in pain, a sharp jolt to her right side. "Oh!" She looked down and didn't see any blood and that confused her for her last moment of consciousness.

"ROSE!" The Doctor increased his speed and reached her just as she passed out, catching her and glaring angrily around him. "What did you do to her?" He tried to determine what happened.

A frantic looking stall-keeper apologized profusely, "I was trying to get the thief. It was an accident!"

"What. Did. You. Do." He growled out the words. The fact that Rose was still breathing was the only tether he had to his sanity at the moment.

"Just a simple cell-disruptor to knock out." The stall-keeper wrung his hands anxiously. He could feel the power and anger coming off the man in the black jacket in waves.

Now knowing what he was dealing with, he examined Rose a little more closely, sonic screwdriver out. The disruptor affected human cells differently than the cells of the native creatures on this planet, causing far more damage than it should.

"Rose, you are a very lucky girl," the Doctor finally said in relief as he touched his forehead to hers. She was still unconscious but he was more confident that she would make a full recovery. Humans and their regenerating liver; she was a very lucky girl indeed. His eyes returned to the man in front of him. "And you are a very lucky man. Never fire wildly into a crowd. Next time you may not be so lucky."

With that, the Doctor lifted Rose and carried her back to the TARDIS. Once onboard, he debated where to put her. She should be watched closely while she healed, but he didn't want to stick her in a hospital setting; he felt that would alarm her too much. He considered going to her room, but he really needed to watch her and the easiest place to do that was his room. Decision made, he carried her into his room and set her on the bed. The Doctor paused as he looked down at her laying there; something felt right about it. He let her sleep, going to his desk to write.

Later, when she started really waking up and being nauseated, he helped her to the loo and reassured her she would be fine, it would pass in a day or two. "You shouldn't have wandered off," he scolded. Rose glared at him before throwing up more.

For the next two days, Rose mostly slept. Sometimes he would hold her as she went back to sleep, trying to calm the nausea she felt. And sometimes while he was holding her, he decided he would sleep as well. It's not like he was going to go off anywhere and leave her alone. Might as well stock up on sleep.

It became more than that soon though. He was enjoying dreaming, especially when he held a certain yellow-haired girl while he slept. He had slept enough to keep him going for decades, but he looked forward to laying down with Rose and allowing his mind to dream.

"You probably can't wait to get me out of here, can't you," Rose said jokingly. She knew the Doctor wouldn't have kept her in his bedroom unless that's where he wanted her, but she still felt like an intruder.

His arms tightened around her when she said that. "No, not at all." He considered the matter, then continued, "I like you being here."

Rose turned so she could look at his face, noting the slight difference in tone he had. "Told you, I'm not leaving you." She gave him a sleepy smile and kissed his cheek. "You're stuck."

"Not a bad place to be then." He buried his face in her hair for a moment, allowing himself to think back on a time very long ago, when he was married and had children before, lifetimes ago. He couldn't bring himself to ask her to stay in his room forever; it was just too painful, especially knowing how short forever would be with Rose.

In the end, he didn't have to ask though. The TARDIS made the decision. Rose had declared that she had to return to her room to fetch clothes and a shower, only to be shocked to find that her door was gone from the hallway. When she looked back into the Doctor's room, her door was next to his closet door, like it had always been there. When opened, her door had become a closet for her things, but the TARDIS had decided that one bedroom was all that was needed for now.

* * *

Rose barged into Mickey's room in a rather unladylike fashion. "You know you have no right to …"

"Demand answers, I know." Mickey finished her sentence before she could. "I know I don't. It was just a shock." He had a hangdog look on his face as he sat on the bed and looked down.

She came to sit next to him putting her head on his shoulder, "I'm sorry, Mickey. I should have warned you."

Mickey rested his head on Rose's. "I didn't really give you much opportunity. I was just hoping…" His earnest brown eyes met hers. "We used to be so good together, Rose. Before the Doctor came and messed it all up."

"But can't you see: for me he didn't mess it up. He brought me the universe. We were good together. But I'm better with the Doctor. And you'll be better with someone else too." She gave him a one-armed hug.

Mickey wasn't really able to respond to that and Rose realized he needed some time alone to lick his wounds. She quietly exited his room and crossed the hall to the room she shared with the Doctor.

Her still-not-ginger Doctor was waiting with arms open to hold her, resting his cheek on the top of her head. "You alright?"

"Yeah. I do care about him. It's just going to take some time for him to figure out that I'm not ever going to be the girl I used to be." She hugged the Doctor tightly for a moment. "Or that I'm here on the TARDIS to stay."

Pulling back to look in her eyes, his hands going to her hair, the Doctor searched her expression for any doubts. Seeing none he sighed sadly. "And I will selfishly keep you here forever if you want." He kissed her lightly then just held her tightly, knowing it was true. It might kill him to see her die some day, but he wouldn't send her away if she wanted to stay.


End file.
